1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments described herein relate to the field of online commerce. More particularly, embodiments described herein are related to the field of remote vending transactions.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless appliances used to connect to the internet are being increasingly used for online, onsite commerce. In many instances, a vending transaction may be carried-through remotely, via a wireless appliance carried by a purchaser. Thus, a purchaser may perform a payment for merchandise at a store location, without cash or a credit card being processed by the vendor. One of the problems that normally arise in this type of transaction is the lack of connectivity for the wireless appliance at certain store locations. Indeed, for indoor facilities it may be difficult to reach a wireless signal through a wireless appliance, thus frustrating the entire vending operation. The loss of commercial opportunity may be large, when considering that a large portion of the population carries wireless appliances. Also, a considerable portion of the population has online payment accounts through a variety of service providers and this trend continues to increase.
Another problem that arises in vending transactions conducted over the internet using wireless appliances is information security. A number of malicious applications have appeared that may retrieve key account information from users. Generically called ‘malware’, these applications may intrude into the operating system of wireless appliances to access information stored or processed in them.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that enables offline, onsite payments using a remote account in a secure manner.